Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an internal combustion engine control apparatus mounted in a vehicle such as an automobile.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the issues such as environment preservation and fuel depletion have been raised; measures for these issues are urgently required also in the automobile industry. As an example for the measures, there exists a technology that reduces pumping loss in an internal combustion engine by use of Exhaust Gas Recirculation (referred to as “EGR”, hereinafter) so as to drastically improve the fuel consumption amount.
However, burned gas, which is exhaust air of the internal combustion engine, is noninflammable and the heat capacity thereof is larger than that of air; therefore, there has been a problem that when the internal engine takes in the burned gas again through EGR, the ignitability and the flammability of the fuel are deteriorated.
To date, as one of solutions for this problem, there has been proposed an internal combustion engine control apparatus that makes an ignition apparatus produce a high-energy spark discharge. This apparatus makes it possible to stabilize the ignitability of fuel and to form a more stabilized flame kernel; thus, the flammability can further be stabilized.
As an ignition apparatus that is utilized in such a conventional internal combustion engine control apparatus and produces a high-energy spark discharge, there has been disclosed an ignition apparatus that is provided with an electric field generation circuit, which is electricity connected with an ignition plug and generates an electric field in the combustion chamber, and that produces plasma by making a spark discharge, at the ignition plug, produced by a high voltage react with the generated electric field so as to ignite a fuel-air mixture (e.g., refer to Patent Document 1).
The usage of the conventional ignition apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 makes it possible to produce a stronger, high-energy spark discharge in the gap of an ignition plug than an ignition apparatus provided with an ordinary ignition coil, to provide a flame kernel with more energy, and to form a more stabilized flame kernel. Accordingly, for example, even when through foregoing EGR, a great deal of burned gas is provided to an internal combustion engine, stabilized combustion can be achieved; therefore, a pumping loss can be reduced by more actively utilizing EGR and hence there can be obtained an internal combustion engine that can drastically decrease the fuel consumption amount.